RobnEdie

Our Titanium Gray Automatic should arrive during the first week in December. Naturally, we're excited. My question to those of you who have had your cars for awhile regards the dealer-offered extended warranty ($1,800). Unfortunately, I can't find another EW offer to make a comparrison. This will primarily be my wife's car and she puts about 27,000 highway and city miles per year on her current Toyota. At that rate, the Mazda warranty will expire quickly. Living in Melbourne, Florida, we have mild winters, not a lot of heavy traffic, and no hills, so driving isn't too taxing on a car. This will be our first rotary and we're not mechanics. Please offer suggestions. Thank you.

Art Hazebrook

This is my first post on this board although I've been lurking around since I decided to start looking for a relacement for my current vehicle, a 1999 SVT Contour.

My experiance with extended warranties is limited to Ford products and you probably want the Manufacturers Premium Warranty...any other carrier usually has a much more limited (and poorly defined) coverage .

Given the recency of the this vehicles release and the fact that FoMoCo is lurking in the background, I would get the maximum warranty coverage possible.

Regards, Art

carnut

The last extended warranty I bought went unused, but I guess that's good. I'm gambling that I'll spend less for repairs (if any!) than I would spend on the warranty, so I passed on the one for my 8. If you buy the warranty, you know you're spending a lot of money. If you don't buy it, it's possible to pay more in repairs, but it's also likely you'll never get your money's worth. Isn't there typically a deductible to pay, also?

Rx-Appreci-8

The above quote is from Consumer Reports website.

Specific cases and testimonials aside, they are probably statistically correct and have the data to back it up.

The question is, of course, how will YOUR car do?

If you pay the $1800, you, the insured, are basically betting that you will have more than that in COLLECTABLE repairs BEYOND the basic warrantee and the insurer is betting you won't.
I chose NOT to buy the extended warrantee for the following reasons:

1 - I don't put a lot of miles on my cars, so time, not mileage, usually expires first.

2 - Overall, Mazda vehicles tend to be reliable according to CR. This is a first year vehicle and my first Mazda so the new engine design worries me a little but I assume other major components and systems (i.e. electrical, suspension, body) will track with other Mazda vehicles.

3 - Mazda stands behind the RX-8 with a 4yr / 48,000 mile warrantee which is 33.33% greater than the 3yr/36,000 warrantee I am used to from Toyota (so I guess I already have a "free" 1/3 extension).

4 - Although I liked the fleet manager who sold me my car, the financial dude pushing the extended warrantee seemed a little sleazy. He acted like I needed to make an on-the-spot decision based on his ten minute pitch alone and refused to let me see the actual contract or take ANYTHING home to read. Huh? Why the secrecy if it is a good deal? I firmly believe "a good deal today is a good deal tomorrow" so I took some personal satisfaction in telling him to keep his "pure profit" warrantee. BTW - They also tried to sell me a basic alarm system claiming the RX-8 only had keyless entry. I was told that almost every RX-8 owner before me purchased a $599 alarm (we were talking BASIC ALARM not LoJack). Thanks to this forum I knew better.

5 - My last SIX Japanese cars never saw the inside of the service department (I do basic maintenance myself). Therefore, I figure I am way ahead of the "curve" so I felt I could afford to "self insure" this time (assuming I even still have the car after 4 years).

6 - I've been told by friends that getting repairs under extended warrantees can be a nightmare.

7 - I'll probably want to upgrade to an RX-8 convertible/turbo/etc. when they come out in a couple of years anyway.

8 - By being a member of this most excellent forum, and a subscriber to Consumer Reports, I'll also have the advantage of knowing if this car is a "keeper" or "trader" before 4 years goes by. To me, knowledge gained from this forum is more valuable than the $1800 extended warrantee

Finally you need to assess your own automotive troubleshooting and mechanical skills. Automotive knowledge and confidence is valuable insurance too. For a variety of reasons I prefer to fix the small things myself regardless of warrantee status.

Surely some people will benifit from an extended warrantee but I doubt MOST will or they couldn't profit (big profit!) by selling at that price.

That's my logic and my 2 cents. I can respect, however, that the situation and motivations of others may be different than mine.

RobnEdie

Thank you, all. Your inputs are much appreciated.

halfon

Get it.

I used to own a 1993 MX-6 and I had lots of repairs done under extended warranty even if the car was always well maintained.

nt5k

Google 'extended warranty' and you will see a bunch of other companies that also offer an extended warranty. Which may or maynot be cheaper then Mazdas.. I plan to wait another year or so, gauge the length of time I plan on keeping it then decide.

warrantygold.com seems to be recommeded, though I couldn't get a quote cause I don't know what to put for 'number of cylinders'

bureau13

If you get the warranty from Mazda, at the very least you have a reasonable expectation that it is not a total scam. As for the aftermarket variety, do some research...make sure you can find people who have actually had to make a claim and been compensated for it. There are a lot of shady warranty companies out there. I had an extended warranty on my FD, unfortunately I don't remember the underwriter...but I did get it at a Mazda dealer. They paid for a lot of stuff so they're probably bankrupt now :D

One other thing...I bought my FD used with about a year left of the basic warranty. I bought the extended warranty from a Mazda dealer that did not sell me the car...I think if you get it when you buy the car its cheaper, but they can still be had even after you've had the car a while.

jds

MEGAREDS

Amen. The financial guy lost me when he said "now or never." The answer to that question is always "never."

ptiemann

I bought the extended warranty on this car. I could've bought it within the first 12 months at the same price.

I bought my previous car at the same dealership and back then I did not get the extended warranty. The car did fine for 3 years, but at 3.5 years, I suddenly had two repairs totalling $2000.

The catalytic converter broke at 81,000 miles (it had a warranty of 80,000 miles). The vehicle was a 2000 model, so there were no aftermarket parts available yet - few people put 81,000 miles on a car in 3 years.
An aftermarket cat. converter would've cost me $220 but the original manufacturer's part was like $1500!!!
With the muffler I had "more luck". An aftermarket muffler ($120) was cheaper than the original GM muffler ($400).

I expect to put a lot of miles on the RX-8 as well. Add this to the fact that it is a new engine design .. for me it makes only sense to get the extended warranty.

My warranty was $1900, not $1800 as was posted here before.

Edit:
I've already been told by a buddy that I'm an idiot for getting the original GM cat converter. Feel free to confirm that :-)

Golfer

Try www.autowarrantybroker.com. They had the best coverage for my Expedition that was out of warranty. Had some major suspension work done bill totaled $3K, they covered $1700 of it (they do not cover the usual wear and tear items) . So for a $1200 warranty cost (2yr/24K milies), I am already ahead of the game.

Rx-Appreci-8

Consumer Reports makes rather huge distinctions between the reliabilities of various brands of cars. In CR tables some brands get solid black dots across the board on virtually all components. I suspect that for certain car brands, CR indirectly sells more extended warrantees than the car salesmen do.

When I made my decision to NOT purchase the extended warrantee, I assumed that most RX-8 components would follow a typical Mazda failure rate within the basic warrantee period ("Infant Mortality") and beyond.

This is my first Mazda so I really don't know except what can be gleaned from sources like Consumer Reports.

Even those of us who chose NOT to buy extended warrantees with the vehicle can still purchase from a variety of sources.

Any long term Mazda owners out there that wish to weigh in with extended warrantee stories (good or bad)? RX-8 buyers could really benefit from your experiences in making their own "crystal ball" decisions.

ptiemann

Well, the reason why I bought a Mazda was because I had had a Mazda before. I once bought a 12 year old 626LX with 114k miles and put another 60k miles on it. In those 3 years, I only had to replace the shock absorbers (they were still the original ones) and the alternator (it also seemed to be the original alternator).

That's what I call a reliable car! With 175,000 miles I did not hesitate a second to take it from San Francisco to San Diego and back for a weekend! (1000 miles) It was still a quiet, comfortable ride!

If the RX-8, being built in Japan, is only half as good, then we all will be very happy.

Sin

Warranty good investment for the miles listed yearly

cruzdreamer

My last mazda...protege5 we had purchased a warranty and never used it and we had 38,000 miles on it. Now this one you watch...we should have and we didn't. Just too much money for us at the time. I think it's a good idea with a car like this!!!